Cooper Kupp joined several Seattle Seahawks players and coach Pete Carroll on Thursday.
He wants to be playing on grass.
"It's not even close," the Los Angeles Rams receiver said, <a href="https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/34892255/rams-wr-cooper-kupp-all-nfl-games-played-grass"><ins>via ESPN's Sarah Barshop</ins></a>. "I know there's stuff going around the league right now, there's some issues.
"Hands down, we should be playing on grass. Hands down, we should be on grass."
There were several high-profile injuries during the Seahawks’ game against the Chargers on Sunday at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.
Seattle receiver DK Metcalf went down with a knee injury after he planted his foot after a catch, though he has avoided ligament damage. Chargers cornerback J.C. Jackson is now out for the season with a patellar tendon tear he sustained on a non-contact play. Chargers receiver Mike Williams rolled his ankle when his cleats were down in the turf, too, and is now out for several weeks.
Those are far from the only injuries to happen on turf around the league, or even at SoFi Stadium.
That prompted Carroll to call on the league to re-examine using artificial turf this offseason.
"I think we definitely need to look at this really seriously in the offseason," Carroll <a href="https://sports.yahoo.com/pete-carroll-seahawks-players-call-for-natural-grass-on-all-nfl-fields-after-so-fi-stadium-injuries-its-the-freakin-surface-022055113.html"><ins>said</ins></a>. "It's been a discussion before. We've got to do what's right, and we've got to do what's safest for the players, and we've got to make those choices. I would pound on the drum for that."
Artificial turf is used in 14 of the 30 stadiums across the league, including at both shared stadiums. While it is significantly better than the old AstroTurf, the league is still working to try and find a surface that's better than the current version and natural grass.
That, though, clearly isn’t here yet.
Seahawks safety Quandre Diggs joined Carroll this week, and even called out SoFi Stadium's turf specifically.
"I'm not a big fan of the Rams-slash-Chargers' field turf. I think it's slick," he <a href="https://sports.yahoo.com/pete-carroll-seahawks-players-call-for-natural-grass-on-all-nfl-fields-after-so-fi-stadium-injuries-its-the-freakin-surface-022055113.html"><ins>said</ins></a>. "You see all these injuries … You see that and you just kind of wonder, why can't we have natural grass everywhere?"
Kupp, however, wouldn’t say if he felt that SoFi Stadium’s turf — where he’s played for years now — was better or worse than others.
When asked directly about his home field, Kupp quickly replied, “We should be on grass.”